Mabton to revise police procedures

MABTON – With an increased reliance on reserve officers, the city of Mabton is taking extra steps in training its officers.

The move was announced last night, Tuesday, by Chief Rick Gutierrez during the Mabton City Council’s regular meeting.

Working primarily on a volunteer basis, reserve police officers in Mabton are taking on a larger role over the next six months as one of the city’s full-time officers is currently in the state’s training academy.

At a meeting last month, the city council agreed to temporarily pay reserve officers for a few hours each month as they fill in for the officer in training.

Last night, Gutierrez said a drive to increase local training for reserve officers has been in the works for several months.

Among the highlights of the new procedures, which take effect immediately, are requirements that police reserves complete 180 hours of supervised training in Mabton once they return from the state’s police reserve basic training.

The additional hours will consist of training with senior officers in Mabton and cover everything from writing reports to leadership, ethics and safety.

In addition, reserves will be required to complete 40 hours of supervised driving time.

Gutierrez said Mabton’s current group of commissioned police reserves have already gone above and beyond the new training regimen.

He noted, though, that the city still has three reserves who are going through state training at the moment and they will be required to also meet the city’s higher standards once they return.